Description: Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis star as
Mickey Knox and Mallory Wilson, two young, attractive mass
murderers in love in Oliver Stone's wild-eyed satire on the
American fascination with criminals. After killing Mallory's
loathsome parents, the pair perform a ritual "marriage" and
take off on a "honeymoon" killing spree that wipes out 52
people. Bloodthirsty tabloid reporter Wayne Gale (Robert
Downey Jr.) reports their every move to an adoring public
while warden Dwight McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones) is only too
eager to welcome such celebrities to his prison.

The Film:

"Natural Born Killers" is not so much about the killers, however, as
about the feeding frenzy they inspire. During the period of their
rampage, they are the most famous people in America, and the media goes
nuts. There are Mickey and Mallory fan clubs and T-shirts; tabloid TV is
represented by a bloodthirsty journalist played by Robert Downey Jr.,
who is so thrilled by their fame he almost wants to embrace them. The
people Mickey and Mallory touch in the law industry are elated to be
handling the case; it gives them a brush with celebrity, and a
tantalizing whiff of the brimstone that fascinates some cops.

Stone has never been a director known for understatement or subtlety.
He'll do anything to get his effect, and that's one of the things I
value about him. He understands that celebrity killers have achieved
such a bizarre status in America that it's almost impossible to satirize
the situation - to get beyond real life. But he goes for broke, in
scenes of carnage like a prison riot, which is telecast live while the
"host" gets caught up in the bloodlust.

Firstly, I'll suggest that
fellow reviewers who are claiming the transfer image quality
is the same on the new Director's Cut
Blu-ray as
on the 2008 R-Rated
Blu-ray -
should practice some due-diligence.
Both are dual-layered but the color sequences are
dramatically different with the earlier release showing
boosted reds that have disappeared for a more natural look
in the DC. Strangely the original release has the superior
bitrate and larger file size for both the disc and the
feature. Despite this, I don't see any extravagant jump in
detail. While there may be other differences - as
contrast may be superior on the 2008 transfer, I don't think
it is especially important for this film which has such an
abundance of shifting styles -, overlays, tints, a variety
of camera sources and fast edit cuts - but I suspect that
the DC remains more faithful to the original intent as flesh
tones, and as another example see the sky outside the prison
shot below, are unnaturally reddish in the R-Rated cut. Many
scenes have intentional grain and overall it makes it hard
to critique the image quality as its diverse nature is
certainly an intentional effect but the red cast seems like
a digital manipulation.

NOTE: The unrated DC is 3:06
longer with, what Stone has stated as, 155 additional
sequences or lengthening of previous ones. I believe these
are mostly focused on more graphic violence that didn't pass
the MPAA at the time. These 'cuts' are restored on the new
Blu-ray.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

Audio :

The True HD 5.1
at 1647 kbps has unnoticeable differences in the two editions. To my ear
it sound exactly the same. Dialogue is intentionally scattered, at
times, and effect noises again give difficulty in making definitive
statements about the quality. The original
Blu-ray
does offer a 5.1 track and 7 foreign language DUBs to the DC's one
(Spanish). Both have extensive subtitle options defining it is the
'International release' supporting m

y Momitsuidentifying
it as being a region FREE disc playable on
Blu-ray
machines worldwide.

Extras :

There are some
additions on the DC although both have the same Stone commentary - first
found on the mid 90's laserdisc. On the DC we do get a new
Introduction by Oliver Stone running just shy of 4-minutes in HD and
2 featurettes: Natural Born Killers Evolution: How It Would All Go
Down Now? for over 20-minutes in HD and the interesting Chaos
Rising: The Storm Around Natural Born Killers for 26-minutes in SD.
The six deleted scenes for over 20 minutes and one alternate ending, at
less than 5-minutes, do not have the advertised optional commentary - or
at least my system was unable to access it - despite it being in the
menu. The original
Blu-ray
release was a Digi-book with beautiful color photos, director's notes
and much more. This has been completely reproduced in the DC
Blu-ray
package as a liner notes booklet inside the standard Blu-ray case.

BOTTOM LINE:

It's quite revealing to see the differences in the
Blu-ray editions and I honestly admit this is not a film that I enjoyed on
my first two viewings many years ago. It is, intentionally,
appalling - certainly not a pleasant experience but it now
seems a valid one - once one becomes more blasť to the
disturbing imagery. Taken from a Quentin Tarantino story -
Natural Born Killers has his edgy content and caustic
thematic look at social culture. From this standpoint it is
often considered a masterpiece and for both Stone's
preferred version and the image - the new
Blu-ray is the way to watch it.

Gary Tooze

October 17th, 2009

About the Reviewer:
Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film
since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was
around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my
horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out
new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500
DVDs and have reviewed over 3500 myself. I appreciate my
discussion Listserv for furthering my film
education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver.
Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our
Amazon links.

Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction. So be
it, but film will always be my first love and I list my
favorites on the old YMdb site now accessible
HERE.